Thatcher Backs Nuclear Power in Fight Against Warming

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Wednesday that nations can fight the threat of global warming by increasing the use of nuclear power and allowing free market forces to deal with the problem.

Thatcher said the “greenhouse effect” caused by carbon dioxide emissions poses clear dangers to the world.

“We are seeing a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere,” she told General Assembly delegates during a seminar on global warming.

“The most pressing task which faces us at the international level is to negotiate a framework convention on climate change--a sort of good conduct guide for all nations,” she said.

More specific agreements to restrict damage to the climate would then be negotiated among nations, she said.

But Thatcher reiterated her government’s position that more study of global warming is needed before remedies are adopted.

She said Britain will establish a Center for the Prediction of Climate Change, which will have advanced computing facilities to predict climate changes.

Thatcher proposed letting market forces work to solve the problem in developed countries and the greater use of nuclear power.

She said Britain will spend $158 million to help developing nations preserve their rain forests.